The White Castles on the Upper Missouri
Engraved by Hinlely in two slightly different versions, possibly printed from the same plate, as subsequently re-worked...
Tableau 37. The White Castles on the Upper Missouri
$1,800.00

Maximilian expressed admiration for the varicolored strata and unusual rock formations to be seen along the banks of the Missouri near the mouth of the Musselshell River, in an area now innundated by the impoundment of Fort Peck Reservoir. He was impressed in particular with the visual effect produced by prominent layers of white clay and sandstone topped with a crumbling brown strata, which he described as resembling "white mountain castles with brownish roofs."

He admitted that "as soon as one comes closer, the resemblance naturally vanishes; but from Mr. Bodmer's sketches, one will easily see that from a distance a great resemblance exists." Later he reiterated: "Although a closer look takes away something of the resemblance, we can
still regard this strange mountain top as masonry."

A Joslyn watercolor based on studies Bodmer made on July 25, 1833, according to Maximilian's journal entry for that day, served as the basis for the later aquatint published in the European atlas.

Other views of the river in this same general area were reproduced in Tableau 35.

See also Vignette XVIlI and Tableaux 34 and 41 for similar studies of unusual formations along the Missouri River above Fort Union.

Tableau 37. Engraved by Hinlely in two slightly different versions, possibly printed from the same plate, as subsequently re-worked; both of
them printed by Bougeard.

Text by David Hunt, Director, Stark Museum, Orange, Texas, USA

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